Tangled in Scaffolding
2022
site-specific installation
What is a scaffold? For many, a symbol of support and strength which becomes a structure of architectural development and construction. From start to end, it is a way for workers to maneuver through elevated levels, protect citizens from materials and debris, and rectify a buildings weakness. In this work, a narrative is investigated through the supported scaffold in a neighborhood.
Ideally, a scaffold has a “shelf-life” generally represented by an estimated completion date. This “life” ends when the intended work has been concluded. However, not every intended development is successfully completed in its estimated deadline. Reasons range from expired building permits, loans, high expenses, and bankruptcy. This creates a problem for developers and forces communities to manage with its remains, adhering to their lives longer than its estimated future. What are its psychological repercussions, and to whom does it affect? To explore these questions, I utilized aluminum wire due to its properties of being minimal, intimate, and non-disruptive. It connects to a steel frame, conversing with itself and reproducing the line. The wire reaches to anchors, attaching with itself and producing a network or vein of communication. The wire becomes human-like, connected around conversation, shelter, and progression. In using the wire to draw in space, the scaffold becomes a material, a place for experimentation. I intended to turn a site protected from the general public to playfully question and loosely vandalize its framework in order to consider one’s relationship to the structure.